---
title: "\"It isn't working.\""
date: 2003-07-18T12:53:46-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2003/07/18/not-working/
author: Les Orchard
---

# "It isn't working."

<blockquote cite="http://www.yarinareth.net/caveatlector/archive/week_2003_07_13.html#e001938"><i>Words to strike terror into the heart of the home's designated computer geek...</i></blockquote><div class="credit" align="right"><small>Source: <cite><a href="http://www.yarinareth.net/caveatlector/archive/week_2003_07_13.html#e001938">Caveat Lector: Iulii 13, 2003 &#8211; Iulii 19, 2003 Archives</a></cite></small></div><p>This doesn&#8217;t happen to me at home, but it strikes terror into me whether I&#8217;m at work, visiting relatives, or mistaken for an employee at some computer store.  &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t work&#8221; always seems to be the introduction into a great, murky mystery which usually leads me into wishing I was either a mind reader or had a cluebat on me.  :)</p>
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shortname=not_working

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084320">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://gominosensei.org/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=be4d6065083dcc3e3aeac2f5bdbeca15&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://gominosensei.org/">boogah</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221084320" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-07-18T13:11:12">2003-07-18T13:11:12</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">this occurs to me on an almost daily basis.  then again i pick up tech support calls between admining stuff for a smallish indie isp so one would expect it to happen.  most times "it doesn't work" is the only explanation i can work out of someone in a half hour call.  *shrug* comes with the territory.</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084322">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://bwinton.latte.ca/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=441f5529f1db69e1a18cefb090e2690a&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://bwinton.latte.ca/">Blake Winton</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221084322" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-07-18T14:42:50">2003-07-18T14:42:50</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">This reminds me of a story I like to tell...

I was visiting my father a while ago, and sometime during the conversation, he mentioned that something broke on his computer, and could I take a look at it.  I sat down in front of the computer, and sure enough, it didn't connect to the internet (or whatever).
"It just started doing that..." he said.
"What did you change?" was my first question.
"Nothing."
"What did you change?"
"Nothing."
"What did you change?"
"Nothing."
"What did you change?"
"Well, I might have changed something, but it shouldn't make any difference."
"What did you change?"
"It was a network setting, but I changed it right back."
(I open up the network settings.)
"Which one did you change?"
"That one."
"What did it used to be set to?"
"This."
(I change it back to what it used to be, and try the test again.  It all works just fine.)
"Wow!  How did you do that?", he asks excitedly.
My deadpan reply: "I'm psychic."

What amuses me the most about this story is that when I tell it to people the universal reaction is "You mean I can just keep asking, and eventually they'll tell me what they did?!?"</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084323">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.media-portal.com/muraii"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=a6ea4923cd8d4c049a63ac982a2701a2&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.media-portal.com/muraii">Daniel</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221084323" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-07-18T16:57:33">2003-07-18T16:57:33</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Nothing is so adorable as when your four-year-old daughter comes, ever so slowly, demurely, down the stairs to tell you that, "It isn't working."</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084324">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://eo.dyndns.info/mt-meblog/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=bb4029863e0ba8911ec718d8d6a3b705&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://eo.dyndns.info/mt-meblog/">MichaelE</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221084324" class="permalink"><time datetime="2003-07-19T20:48:37">2003-07-19T20:48:37</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Hmmm... 'cluebat' where do I get one? Sounds like a great thing to carry to the Executive Briefing!</div>
            
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